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An overall waste of everyone's time

I have had a wide experience of Hays, both as a candidate and as a recruiter.On several occassions, they have lied to me about vacancies that don't exist, simply to lure me into their various offices to register.My latest disaster with Hays saw me attending an interview for a senior management position, only to find out that the actual vacancy was for a much, much more lowly role......and for a fraction of the annual salary! All this despite clearly and precisely telling the Hays consultant exactly what role I was looking for, and the minimum salary that I would accept.I haven't quite worked out why they would send me for an interview which clearly wastes everyone's time, but I can only guess that the so-called consultants earn points by getting bums on seats at interview, to improve their own personal statistics.......nevermind how much inconvenience it causes the potential employer and candidate.Take my advice, avoid Hays like the plague otherwise you will feel extremely let down, belittled and disappointed.

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Enlisted with them 3 times over 2 years and hopeless!I'm an Electrician and they have never contacted me regarding positions.As an Industrial Electrician also with Mining Experience I thought I'd have a chance?Yet again I contacted them today (24/10/2012) and oh we don't have anything, then why do they advertise for positions I am available for!

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Hope to get away from them soon and not hear from them anymore

Having joined them less than 3 weeks ago already had enough of this unprofessional agency. Have had nothing but lies from them. The job title has constantly changed which is rediculous as when you have a job you have just the 1 job title. The length of the job constantly changes started as 6 weeks, then went down to 3 and when I phoned to ask which it was the reply I got from the girl I registered with was "I have no idea". She even had the cheek to lie to my face about what was on my own CV, being professional I chose not to argue with her. I was told the job was 1 thing and when I got there found out it was something different in which i've never done before or have experience doing. Also had to ask repeatedly for forms sending so I could get paid. When I did go to register with them I was asked to go somewhere out of my city when theres actually one where I live. She never even explained or told me a single thing about how temp jobs work or how Hays works. Seems her and Hays have no idea what their doing. The sooner I can get out of this boring job and away from Hays the better. Wouldn't reccomend them to anyone.

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I've had similar experiences to the rest of you. I am with a company as a contractor and I got the role through another agency but the company I'm with have Hays as the Preferred Supplier so I have to go through them in some strange arrangement.After the massive error by someone at Hays giving the press the rates of contractors they obviously tried to re-coup some damage to their reputation by offering thier clients cost saving measures by cutting all contractor wages by 10%. My experience with their system is not much better either. I've been to them for a few jobs in the past and they never call back. Check out a good story on rubbish recruiters here http://contractr.net/rank-recruiter/

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shocking experience

I left my registration feeling completely let down and had been made to feel like dirt throughout the entire meeting.

After booking to register that week, a male consultant called me to say he believed my CV matched a job he had and that he had sent it forward to the employer; with confidence that I would get an interview.

Upon arriving I was met by a girl who began going through my CV with me (all the time looking me up and down) during which the consultant who had given me the call arrived.Before even seating himself he demanded to know if we had dicussed my unrelated university degree (Dance), looking down his nose at the subject area the entire time - I am sure someone so small minded does not account for the amount of commitment the course takes including, physical and theoretical work, seminars, performances, lectures, rehearsal periods (often long evening hours) and business modules as well as working part time.He wanted to know why I was not working in this field - to which I explain many graduates do not acutally work in their related field straight away and that my sales and marketing experience and interestes were therefore more important to gain a steady career and a living, as opposed to a dance artist, which would be more of an evening/weekend freelance venture.

After reading other reviews on Hays Recuriting I have to say I completely agree with one persons option that they were:

"Arrogant, rude and inconsiderate and a very thin line tantamount to bullying knowing the economic climate and the necessity for work. It seems the applicants are there for the agency and not the other way around"

I felt backed into a corner as I had simply come to register and was being bullied into explaining my life and education choices, within an interview situation.

They also demanded to know why I felt someone at my level would justify asking for a slightly higher salary than my current - It does not take much sense to think that anyone moving up the career ladder would ask for a little more...?

The rude male consultant (after grilling me) abruptly stated that my CV had been rejected anyway and that I would not match the field due to graduate competition.... why I ask would they not recognise this before I spend money on travelling to attend? Is this not within their job description to match a candidate to their clients specifications?

He then left without a care in the world and left the female consultant finish up, to whom I asked to bear me in mind, but that I could clearly see I was not right for their books. I also refused her business card which she begudgingly pushed across the table.

I left angry, upset and shocked.

I have since found an agency in Bristol who are the complete opposite of the "service" I experienced and that are so bubbly, eager to help and efficient

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What an awful experience. This company is absolutely atrocious. Their emails are full of spelling mistakes akin to txt spk. You are lucky if they remember to pay you. If a class of 16 year olds ran a company, Hays it what you would expect.

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give them a wide berth

Snooty, self obsessed and downright rude. This is my opinion of Hays Recruitment, especially the London Recruitment staff. There is an attitude that you should be glad that they can find you any kind of employment and as for getting your wages out of them, be very, very careful about using their payroll system. Most inefficient. I have decided to be unemployed rather that have to depend on them. This is not just me, but other disatisfied clients. There is also a sense of prejudice from the recruiters when dealing with people who are not English. I saw this myself and it made me uncomfortable, which was really unneccessary.They discuss people quite openly, and that is offputting and rude. I worked for the for 2 months, enough time to know that I was in the wrong place and found them unhelpful , patronising ,coarse and just the most negative agency it had been my experience to deal with. There are others in London, use them .NOT HAYS.Total rubbish.

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Don't rely on these!

Hays are a recruitment agency operating worldwide in 29 different countries. Companies and organisations use them to fill vacancies without the hassle of advertising and sorting through hundreds of applications themselves. They recruit for all types of work, from admin to social housing, permanent and temporary. Hays say they are experts in recruiting for the following areas:

I have been seeking work since graduating from university last July. Except for one temporary role cleaning, I have been unable to find anything, despite applying for three or four jobs a day. At the beginning I was reluctant to join any agencies, but as the weeks went on I realised I had little choice.

A few months ago I received a phone call from my local Hays office. They had seen my CV on Total Jobs and wanted me to register as they had many roles I would be perfect for. I made an appointment over the phone, and was told I would need to take some I.D documents along, such as my driving licence and passport.

When I arrived at Hays I was given a form to fill in. This asked for personal information, such as name, address, the sort of work I was looking for, my education and work history and the contact details of two references. Once the form was completed I was taken to a room to chat about possible vacancies I may want to apply for. There was one role I was very interested in, working for a company I had always wanted to work for, and we discussed this in more detail. I was told I would need a CRB check for this, which Hays would pay for. I completed this form, and the recruiter told me he would be in touch when the CRB arrived back.

A couple of weeks later I received my copy of the CRB in the post. I sent an email to the recruiter asking what the next step would be, but received no reply.

One week later, I sent another, very polite email, asking what I should do now. The recruiter called me telling me the job had been put back until May, but he would carry on working for me, hunting out vacancies, and he would be in touch.

A couple of weeks later, I had still heard nothing. I sent another email. As part of the Job Seekers Agreement I have to stay in weekly contact with agencies. Anyone who has dealt with agencies will tell you this is a good idea, so they know you are still looking for work and your name is fresh in their mind. I have in fact been emailing the recruiter weekly now for around 6 weeks, and have not had any response whatsoever. All my emails are very polite, and I have even said that I understand if the role has already been filled but that I would be grateful if he could let me know so I can give up on it. I have asked about other vacancies, asked for an update, but I hear nothing back.

I have discussed Hays with others, and it seems many people have had the same experience as me. They are very quick to get you signed up and full of enthusiasm at the first meeting, telling you they will find you a job very quickly blah blah blah. The truth is, once you're registered, they don't want to know. They have your name on that list, which is all that matters when they are trying to get business from companies. They have this huge list of clients ready for work.

Here's a few tips for dealing with agencies in general:- Watch what you say. Do not tell them about any other interviews you have lined up. It's very likely they will contact them and say they have more suitable candidates. They will do anything for business.- Be wary of giving references. They will probably contact them touting for business, and you don't really want to annoy your previous employers.- Stay in contact. Remind them you are alive and looking for work.- Do not believe a word they say. I hate to generalise, but they spout a lot of rubbish. I am sure there must be some good guys out there, but I advise not pinning all your hopes on anything they say.

So here I am, still looking for work, having missed out on my dream job through no fault of my own.

Anybody need a hardworking, reliable psychology graduate?

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I cant believe that a nation wide agency treat staff this way and stay in business

When I was made redundant in February 2008 I registered with a great many agencies in my search for permanent PA work and have been temping until the "right job" comes along. In that time I have worked for a number of agencies all of whom have always paid me the rate as quoted with holiday pay accruing from their fees. However Hays quote you an hourly rate and when you get paid they take your holiday pay ie. Quote £10.00 per hour but you receive approximately £8.50 per hour. I was never told about this and was shocked that an agency could treat their "bread and butter" workers in this way. I understand that this is within European Directorate but you will find that Hays are one of the very few agencies that do this. I have now terminated my contract with Hays and I am under contract to a reputable agency.

Like a previous reviewer I would not give this agency any stars - but your system does not allow this.

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Scum

Hays Specialist Recruitment.

Hays are a national recruitment agency that is split into sections for each industry it provides a service for. So for example, you have Hays Social Care, Hays Construction, Hays Education and so on and so forth.

They have lots of different offices at different locations around Bristol city centre, near where I am from, so they are doing very well for themselves.

They have very nice offices, business cards, are usually found in architecturally good buildings, and their Recruitment Consultants are always dressed impeccably, always speak with Received Pronunciation (posh) accents and are always very friendly.

They are also a recruitment agency, which means they are scammers, and this lot are some of the worst I have ever seen.

From the age of eighteen to twenty-three (the age I am at now), I sought the services of at least a dozen different recruitment/employment agencies. All I have ever got is a temporary cleaning job at Tesco, despite at the time having left college with nine GCSEs A-C grade and a BTEC National Diploma. At the time I registered with Hays Social Care, I'd since had years of work experience (not acquired through an agency) and had achieved an introductory teaching qualification. I was looking for a care support worker role.

Rewind a little to 2007 when I was looking for call centre work, my first experience with Hays. I used Hays Contact Centres. I had to go in there twice because I needed to give them so much personal documentation; birth certificate, proofs of addresses etc, payslips for all previous jobs etc. I had a telephone call from them every day for a week where they couldn't find the telephone number for one of my previous employers. Yes, they rang all of my previous employers, asking for a reference.

I got one job interview from them, with RBS, where I was turned down because I was honest when asked what could be improved about my previous line manager. I rang Hays up a couple of times after that, asking if there were any other positions available, but I got nothing. And no, they didn't call again.

Fast forward to earlier this year. I was looking for a social care job. I turned to Hays Social Care. This time I would need to fill in a CRB. Fine. I also had to pay £35 out of my own money in order for it to be processed. I had to make several trips to this agency as well over the whole registration period; handing in my documents and giving them the cheque for the CRB. I was assured that there was a position available. But then once I'd sent the CRB off, the position had JUST been filled. Not to worry, I was told, there were lots of other vacancies. My consultant regaled me with stories of different care homes he'd been visiting and people he'd been telling about me and my CV. He also got references, including from my current employer, which wasn't pleasant.

And nothing materialised there, either. So that's £35 for the CRB down the drain, along with my time, effort, hope and self-esteem.

I will never, ever use an agency for employment again, least of all Hays.

They deserve 0 stars but there is no option for that.

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Not one of the best agencies I've worked for but the work's there, beware of payment issues

I've recently started work for Hays Education doing day to day supply teaching, so covering teachers that have called in sick for example. I don't believe in writing reviews just to have a moan and hope this is a helpful review.

The main concern I have with this agency is their payroll department; I have worked for agencies on and off for 7 years and thought it standard that you are paid the Friday after the week you have worked. Hays operates a payonline system that, in theory, should be great, but I still can't grasp what benefit it has. To be fair, of the teaching agencies I am with, my consultant at Hays has kept me updated and with enough work to get by, but I have to wait a week before the details are uploaded onto the system before I can submit a timesheet.

Once I'm finally able to submit the timesheet, it goes to the school administrator to authorise which is usually done straight away.

Money may or may not then appear in my bank any day of the week. Since my first payslip (issues with which I will also explain) I realised I was on an emergency tax code. As I have been working for other agencies, I called the tax office and was finally told a correct code and that Hays would use this when they next process payment.

The online system showed a payment I was due, for which I have not received a payslip so I clicked the button to 'request a copy to be emailed,' I have since done this 3 times but received no payslip (have also checked my email address on the system is correct). My most recent payslip which was emailed to me still shows the wrong tax code.

I called the payroll department; everytime I have called I have been waiting to get through for no less than 5 minutes, today I waited 9 minutes to be cut off, called again and had to hold another 5 minutes. Partly my own fault for not realising but I got through to the call centre to be told they don't have my National Insurance number; this is about the 5th time I have called to sort this out only now to be told they don't have this and so any code the tax office has sent would not have correlated with anything.

I also queried payment for my first day of work which I have never received (due 4 weeks ago) they admitted this was put on the wrong contract and should've been processed.

I realise I have moaned at this point but have never had such issues before now and wanted people to be aware of the payment system. I have read another couple of reviews where people have experienced the same problems, hopefully the system will be more efficient soon.

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Hays are just another agency unfortunately

I have written quite negatively about agency's in general but the question is will Hays book that trend?. Well I hoped so, since this a national agency and first impressions were good. I came across a very professional looking site and wasted no time in registering with them. All that was needed was a brief description of what I was looking for, roughly within what vicinity along with providing them with a copy of an up to date C.V.

Initally this positivity was reinforced when shortly after the registration, I received a call which wanted to recap and clarify some of the details I had provided to them and ended with an upbeat message. Now there is a Hays office located nearby to me and therefore they asked if I could visit the office in order to a more in depth discussion. Again I was impressed by this level of customer service and came away from the informal discussion convinced that this agency would buck the negative trend I had encountered prior to this one.

However shortly after this conversation I received a further call, unfortunately this was not the same person I had spoken to last time. When I enquired as to where the other person was, the reply I was was unfortunately that person has now left the organisation but could I come in for a discussion. Having felt a very bad case of deja vu, I explained that I was not prepared to do what I had only done a week earlier. The recruitment consultant seemed to understand where I was coming in this respect and promised that he would get back to me if any suitable jobs came up.

The first time I heard from this person was a month later. They informed me that there was a job imminently about to start but it was part time, was temporary for a few weeks and it was for an armaments company. I flatly said I was not interested because I didn't see the point in starting in a job which would last for such a period of time and after closing our conversation, he said he would be back in touch. He was indeed back in touch within 2 weeks, to tell me about a job, a purchase ledger position.

At this moment I realised that I was just revisiting the same old agency tactics. Those are you explain to them what you are looking for, they ignore those wishes and instead pursue the only tactic they seem to appreciate and that is how quickly I can fill this position with x person who is currently unemployed.

There seemed to be a mentality of only applying good customer service if it was in his interests. As it was, he really disregarded everything I had said to him. It's just unfortunate the business doesn't have the same professionalism as the website.

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I'm experienced in my field and responded to one of their ads. They're pretty rubbish. Interviewed by a lady (not sure if she'd held a "real" job outside of recruitment so how they she could be expected to assess my suitability is beyond me) - she admitted it was her first competency based interview! No delving into my experience, my suitability or what the job / employer was about. Asked 3 "competency" questions from a crib sheet - my responses were that I'd pick up the phone and get it sorted (as you do in the real working world). Didn't get to the next stage but received an email cc'd to all applicants instead so we all knew who had applied! Avoid them, they don't seem to know what they're doing when they have large "campaigns". Never applied via them before but my first experience wasn't good.

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Poor Agency

i recently graduated and signed up with hays to find some work during the summer holiday after uni. I dodn't hear from them again for about 6 months but luckily when i did i was still looking for work as i had decided to go travelling after uni instead. There is no point in apllying for a specific job advert with them you might have seen because in my experience you will be lucky to get offered a job which pays over 14k and even then its likely it will be in a hard to get to location and be irregular hours. I know that if people need a job then anything is appreciated but i would really steer clear of Hays if at all possible. Im sure they are usefull if you have a really specific skill and they have a vacany for that but it seems that many of the advertised vacancies are out of date.

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I agree with the reviews, it seems our futures are in the hands on inexperienced idiots on the other end of the phone at Hays who not only have no idea of the roles they are looking after nor the decorum to deal with frustrated job seekers at the other end. When I queried a supposingly instant response 'not suitable' I asked for feedback. The so called 'experienced recruiter' on the other end couldnt even pronounce my job title let alone understand the role or skills so I was deemed not suitable and when I explained to her she said it was up to her who she put forward. Says it all really. C'mon you agencies get your own house filled with some intelligence first before you try and help us and charge the companies for the priviledge of placing us who actually DO know our jobs.